Phased array antenna panels are used to generate steerable beams that may be utilized in wireless communication systems. Phased arrays create a focused beam that can be steered very quickly to maintain a link for any on-the-move communication system. Conventional wireless communications systems can also utilize steerable beams to communicate with multiple wireless nodes by moving the beams from one wireless node to the next. A single beam may service multiple wireless nodes in a sequence and repeat the sequence periodically such that each wireless node appears to be in constant communications with the system. The beam steering is generally implemented by power amplifiers in each transmit channel of the transceiver circuitry. The power amplifiers drive respective antenna elements of the phased array antenna to produce and steer the beams.
The antenna elements of the phased array antenna also need to be connected to each receive channel of the transceiver circuitry to provide bi-directional communication. The transceiver circuitry needs to switch the antenna elements between the transmit channels and the receive channels quickly, such that each wireless node appears to be in constant communications with the system. Transmit/receive (T/R) switches are generally used to couple the transmit and receive channels to the antenna elements. The switching speed and settling time parameters of the channels are very important for low-latency specifications, such as in emerging fifth generation (5G) communications systems.
It would be desirable to implement a fast transmit-receive (T/R) switching architecture.